John K. Niparko (1955 – April 25, 2016) was an American

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

, scientist and

otolaryngologist Otorhinolaryngology ( , abbreviated ORL and also known as otolaryngology, otolaryngology–head and neck surgery (ORL–H&N or OHNS), or ear, nose, and throat (ENT)) is a surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the surgical an ...

who specialized in

cochlear implant A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted Neuroprosthetics, neuroprosthesis that provides a person who has moderate-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss with sound perception. With the help of therapy, cochlear implants may allow for imp ...

s. Niparko edited and wrote several chapters of ''Cochlear Implants: Principles & Practices''.

Early life

Niparko was born and raised in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

. In high school, he became interested in early inner-era implant devices. He attended the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

where he received his bachelor degree and medical degree. There, he completed his residency in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery. He also completed a fellowship in neurotology, otology, and skull base surgery.

Career

In 1993, Niparko established the Listening Center at

Johns Hopkins Hospital Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1889, Johns Hopkins Hospital and its school of medicine are considered to be the foundin ...

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

. There, he served as the inaugural George T. Nager Professor and director of the Division of Otology, Neurotology and Skull Base Surgery from 2009 to 2012. Niparko was recognized as an authority on cochlear implants, having implanted Cochlear brand Nucleus implants on former

Miss America Miss America is an annual competition that is open to women from the United States between the ages of 18 and 28. Originating in 1921 as a "bathing beauty revue", the contest is judged on competition segments with scoring percentages: ''Priva ...

Heather Whitestone in 1995 and 1999. He also implanted bilateral Advanced Bionics cochlear implants on Auditory-Verbal therapist Sigrid Cerf, wife of Internet pioneer

Vint Cerf Vinton Gray Cerf (; born June 23, 1943) is an American Internet pioneer and is recognized as one of "the fathers of the Internet", sharing this title with TCP/IP co-developer Robert Kahn. He has received honorary degrees and awards that inclu ...

, who invented e-mail in 1970 because of his own severe hearing loss. In 2013, Niparko joined the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

where he was chair of the

USC USC may refer to: Education United States * Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico * University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina ** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina * ...

Keck School of Medicine's Caruso Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery. He also founded and directed the USC Caruso Family Center for Childhood Communication. Lastly, he was also responsible for the orderly shutdown of the House Research Institute, which is separate from the House Ear Clinic, seamlessly transferring ongoing research projects to USC Keck and to UCLA. Niparko conducted research demonstrating that cochlear implants were highly cost effective in children and adults. He led efforts to establish a new national organization to focus on the underutilization of cochlear implants in the United States. This led to the founding of the American Cochlear Implant Alliance in 2011 with a mission to focus on access to cochlear implants. The John Niparko Lecture at the annual Cochlear Implant Symposium was established by the American Cochlear Implant Alliance in his honor, with

ARPANET The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first computer networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the tec ...

(Internet) co-inventor

delivering the Inaugural On April 25, 2016, Niparko died of complications from treatment from a rare genetic-based form of lymphoma at the University of Southern California's Keck Medical Center. He was 61.

Awards

Hearing Research Award (2001) - Deafness Research Foundation

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Niparko, John 1955 births 2016 deaths American otolaryngologists University of Michigan Medical School alumni Johns Hopkins University faculty Keck School of Medicine of USC faculty